PhD Students

Current Students

Note: I work with more students than this, and I value all of my working relationships with students. The students listed below are those whose theses or dissertations I am chairing or have chaired.

Sirat Kaur

Sirat is a second-year PhD student examining the how our understanding of families, crime, and health shifts when considering immigrant perspective and experiences. Currently, she is working on her MA thesis, which uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent to Adult Health to understand the implications of intimate partner violence for mental health, particularly among immigrants. Sirat also has experience working as a community-based researcher and organizer for immigrant rights.

Kathleen D'Alfonso

Kathleen's research interests are focused on health insurance status across the life course with particular attention in the dissertation on the transition to adulthood. She additionally has a working paper investigating whether the association between insurance status (being privately, publicly, or uninsured) and two dimensions of health varies by nativity and citizenship. In addition to her research, Kathleen has extensive experience teaching both in person and online. She has served as the instructor of record for 17 courses and has presented at TA orientations, led campus workshops, and spoken on the Teaching Table Podcast at the University at Buffalo.

Chandler Fairbanks

Chandler Fairbanks is currently working on his dissertation, which investigates the health and well-being of sexual minorities in romantic relationships. He is specifically interested in understanding those who typically remain understudied in scholarly work on the queer community, such as individuals who identify as bisexual. He is also working on a range of collaborative projects investigating relationship quality and health within interracial couples, the impact of adult offspring stressors on parental cognitive functioning, and how orientations toward marriage predict risk-taking behaviors across the transition to adulthood. In addition to this research program, Chandler also teaches Basic Statistics for Social Scientists, where he is dedicated to helping students understand how statistical methods are used within the discipline and providing hands-on experience with coding software. His work on sexual minorities in romantic relationships won the Nathalie Devine Howe Award for Outstanding Scholarship.